Bank-Rescue Compromise Plan Is Under Review by U.S. Lawmakers - Bloomberg

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Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. lawmakers are reviewing a tentative agreement to revive credit markets by authorizing a $700 billion plan to buy troubled assets from financial institutions.

``The deal is done,'' Senator Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, a ranking member of the Budget Committee, said this morning. The House and Senate may vote tomorrow, Gregg said.

Still, Republican House members are waiting to see the compromise proposal written into legislation before making a final decision to support it, said Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia.

``We're waiting to see what this looks like on paper to see if we have an agreement,'' Cantor said.

The negotiations were completed about midnight when lawmakers agreed to require the president to offer a plan to recoup any loss to the taxpayers after five years, said a Democratic congressional aide. That clause was intended to address concerns about the cost of the program.

The agreement alters the Bush administration's original request for unchecked authority to purchase distressed debt securities from financial companies reeling from the record number of home foreclosures. That plan evoked a blizzard of emails and phone calls from voters outraged at being asked to foot the bill for the mistakes of Wall Street investors.

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